The demonstration called by the Tenants' Union yesterday at the Junts headquarters to protest against Carles Puigdemont's party's rejection of the Spanish government's housing decree was marked by outrage. The sixty or so people who attended, amidst the rain, hurled insults at the Junts members, and the spokesperson for the Tenants' Union, Carme Arcarazo, delivered the most scathing message: "If it weren't for Junts, who caused the anti-eviction moratorium to fall in February, Olga would be alive today," referring to the recent suicide in Catalonia following an eviction. She raised the tone even further: "Let them be exposed as being against the people. They have voted in favor of suicides," she lashed out. The warning was that "these people must pay dearly for this," referring to the Junts members. For this reason, they even addressed former president Carles Puigdemont, with shouts for him to "stay in Brussels." Arcarazo asked herself "how can President Puigdemont return home after having cast out hundreds of thousands of people." Several union representatives emphasized that Junts is "bought" by the real estate lobby, while the Tenants' Union warned that the country is heading towards a "general strike." One demonstrator, Cati, a pensioner who does own a house, predicted that "this is the grave of Junts" and defends "a popular front" led by Pedro Sánchez. Other demonstrators branded Junts as "traitors" and even "fascists." "Out of the governments," demanded Juanjo Hurtado, of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), referring to the fact that Junts should not have any influence in any executive – reports Roger Palós.
Sánchez considers whether to bring forward elections after Junts' no to the housing decrees
The Spanish president wants to take the pulse of the street while PSOE leaders believe it is a window of opportunity
MadridThe Spanish government and Junts starred yesterday in an unprecedented standoff in Congress. After days of in extremis negotiation over the housing decree, the Junts members decided to overturn, with the votes of the PP and Vox, the regulation that suspended evictions and also indefinite rental contracts, and the PNV and Canary Coalition also opposed it. To give significance to the moment, even the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, wanted to take the floor at the end of the plenary session to ask them to reconsider. "History will judge you with more force than you imagine," he sentenced. Now Sánchez has opened a reflection this weekend – he will open a round of contacts with his circle – to decide whether to call elections. The Spanish president must evaluate the pulse on the street, with the various mobilizations in the State, and also data on the effects of the failed vote in Congress.
"You are more interested in the electoral campaign than in solving people's lives," Miriam Nogueras accused them yesterday from the podium. "We are not afraid of the blackmail of the extremes," she added, since in her opinion Sánchez's measures "aggravate the housing crisis." Former president Carles Puigdemont was also forceful on X. "We have seen one of the most obscene operations of political propaganda paid for with public money, at the service of an electoral campaign that will be sooner or later, but it will be," he said, assuring that the operation is to "save the PSOE".
The significance of the vote was such that the left even requested that the vote be nominal: each deputy expressed their yes or no out loud. "The overstepping is historic," warned Gabriel Rufián to Junts. "I will strive to ensure they end up in political ostracism." Sumar deputy Tesh Sidi went further and asked them "how many people have to commit suicide in Catalonia" for them to vote in favor of the housing decrees being debated in Congress.
The Spanish government considered that the context of social protest, with the encampment in Puerta del Sol and Plaça Catalunya, gave them the opportunity to push forward a housing package with the plurinational majority, including Junts, which had been stalled throughout the legislature. But the reality is that the vote ended like the previous ones, in which Junts, together with the PP and Vox, has vetoed the government's housing measures. However, there is a difference from previous occasions: this time various PSOE sources assure that Pedro Sánchez does not rule out calling early elections as a response, since it has been confirmed that he does not have the arithmetic to carry out the housing policies he considers necessary. Socialist sources believe that housing is people's main concern and that the right "has made a mistake" with the direction of its vote. "They are not gauging the pulse of the citizenry well," they add from La Moncloa, while advising more caution when assessing whether Sánchez will call elections. In fact, they believe it is now time to analyze what has happened and also see the magnitude of the mobilizations planned for this Saturday in Madrid, Barcelona, and the rest of the State's capitals. "It is no longer a question of ideology, but of humanism," they conclude.
After two months with Ceuta at the center of public debate, the conversation has shifted in the last week toward social issues, which is where the Spanish government feels strong. That is why those in favor of calling early elections ensure that they will not have a "better framework" between now and 2027 to be able to go to the polls. "Either with the people or with the vulture funds," socialist leaders repeated throughout the day, already in campaign mode. However, it is also true that elections would completely alter the plans Sánchez had until now. The Spanish president has always placed the elections in 2027 and they hoped that in this final stretch of the legislature the amnesty would be applied and that issues such as new financing or the forgiveness of the FLA debt could also be approved.
In fact, not all of the PSOE actually believes that the best move is to call for elections – after Ceuta, the socialists had suffered a decline –. To the left of the socialists, Sumar, Podemos, among others, are not yet organized. Would Sánchez be capable of gathering the unrest regarding housing? Channeling the Puerta del Sol protests electorally? This is the question that a leader of the left was asking at the doors of Congress, who expressed skepticism about the PSOE's ability to also mobilize the most left-wing factions of the electorate without a Sumar and Podemos aligned.
Pressure on Junts
During the debate, Junts took all the criticism from the left-wing parties and also from the government. "Today you will be judged by your votes," insisted Isabel Rodríguez during the debate to Junts, who were listening attentively from their benches. "It is the moment of truth –she continued in a grave tone–, it is the time to deliver for the Spaniards and the Catalans." The Minister of Housing defended that in the first decree-law she was presenting this Friday in the hemicycle, there was "90%" of the measures that Junts had proposed and she asked until the very end that they rethink their vote or at least abstain. In fact, she offered to process the measures later as a bill in order to include or change what they were not satisfied with.
What did Junts answer them? Despite Rodríguez's offer, the proposal that Junts put on the table was for the Spanish government to withdraw the regulation and sit down to negotiate "behind closed doors" again with them. Sources from Miriam Nogueras' group claim that they had not validated the latest version of the text that the Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday and are suspicious of how the suspension of evictions, the extraordinary extension of leases, or the veto on the purchase of apartments by vulture funds was regulated.
Despite the widespread criticism, several Junts leaders are satisfied with the decision taken. "We will see each other at the polls," assures one source, while others congratulate themselves on having recovered the connection with the Catalan business community after the 'Procés', where the post-convergent space turned further to the left. "Now we have a clear position," states another. In this sense, they interpret that if there are general elections, they will be the only ones to represent, they believe, an economic model different from that of the "far-left," which they attribute to the housing decrees of Sumar and Podemos –although in one of them, which Junts had also negotiated, the PNV and Canary Coalition have joined–. The Basque nationalists expressed a "critical yes out of responsibility," but pointed out that despite protecting the "most vulnerable," the measures would hinder the increase in housing supply.
Feijóo asks Sánchez to set a date now
The PP and Vox attacked the Spanish government and challenged it to call early elections. "Do you think you have an alibi? Then set a date. Dissolve the courts, call elections and let the Spanish people speak," demanded the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. "Nobody is thinking about Pedro Sánchez until 2031 anymore, but the fact is that nobody wants Pedro Sánchez for Christmas," he reaffirmed. It will be the Spanish president who, in the coming days, will decide whether to call the people to the polls.